How to Import Gmail Contacts Into Mozilla Thunderbird

Importing Gmail contacts into Mozilla Thunderbird is an important part in making Mozilla Thunderbird your one-stop source for email. Simply access Gmail to begin exporting contacts from your account and importing them into Mozilla Thunderbird to cut down on having to access email in different places.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Export the contacts in your existing Gmail address book. Choose "Contacts" from the left side of Gmail's mail menu. At the bottom of the new window, select "Export."

2. Find the part of the window that says, "What format would you like to export to?" and choose "Outlook CSV" as the export format. Note that this option applies for "other applications" aside from Outlook. Select "Export" and allow your contacts to save to your desktop as a ".csv" file.

3. Open Mozilla Thunderbird. From the application menu, select "Tools" and "Import." Choose "Address Books" before pressing "Next." Highlight "Text File" and press "Next."

4. Browse through the files on your desktop until you find your .csv contacts file and select it.

5. Check the "First Record Contains Field Names" option.

6. Move contact information around in Mozilla Thunderbird using the "Move Up" and "Move Down" function to sync contact information. Mozilla Thunderbird's information will be on the left of the window and Gmail's information will be on the right. The most important information to sync is "Primary Email," "Email Address," "Last Name and "Name."

7. Select "OK" and "Finish" when done.

Tips & Warnings

• Take advantage of Mozilla Thunderbird's "Next" button at the top of the screen to see what information will be imported and how it will look before permanently importing.
• Consider opening up the .csv file in Excel and making adjustments to your contact's information before importing the file into Mozilla Thunderbird.
• Gmail may not recognize first and last names while importing contacts into Mozilla Thunderbird. Configuring and matching first and last names is necessary to avoid confusion and to make Mozilla Thunderbird work the way you want it to.